Voting Week starts June 28

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Connor Estes
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Armed Forces Voter's Week, an event that promotes awareness of the military members' right to vote, runs this year from June 28 through July 7.

Although it is not a presidential election year, there is a lot going on politically. Federal elections will be held in November to decide 435 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as numerous Senate and state governor seats.

To get voting representatives ready, Bob Carey, Director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program office in Washington D.C., held a training class June 24 at Eagle's Landing to highlight improvements to the military voting program.

"We made the process a lot easier," said Mr. Carey. "People can complete their entire registration and absentee ballot application in five to 10 minutes and do it with only knowing their residence, driver's license number, social security number and where they want the ballot sent."

In order to vote, servicemembers or eligible dependents must fill out an SF 76, Federal Post Card Application. This form notifies voting officials of overseas addresses for the absentee ballots. To help with this process, Liberty Warriors can expect to see voting information around the base.

"We will have our voting representatives out talking with their units and putting up posters," said Maj. Andrea Ramey, 48th Fighter Wing, Installation Voting Assistance officer. "We're also going to set up tables with laptops around the base, the Base Exchange and the 4th of July celebration at Feltwell and assist people with anything voting."

Even though most everything can be accomplished online, people still need to act early and take advantage of the new laws that require ballots to be sent out no later than Sept. 18 or 45 days prior to the elections.

"As much as we try to put everything online, at some point the mail still has to take part in this process," said Mr. Carey. "People need to send in their absentee ballot information well enough in advance to give local election officials enough time to process your application."